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Architecture

A Grave Issue ...
Amid a housing crisis in Egypt, and with the population of the capital estimated at 20 million, thousands of people count themselves lucky to call Cairo Necropolis home. For some in the neighborhood of cemeteries, final resting place to hundreds of thousands people over centuries, the graves themselves provide a livelihood: with people taking care of tombs, digging new graves, or selling flowers to visitors paying their respects on Fridays. (Housing, Egypt, graveyards.)Upper-Intermediate

Protecting famous places
Italy tightens its security at famous places. (Famous places, the Tower of Pisa, passives, comprehension, ranking activity, writing a poem.)Pre-Intermediate

Roman Chariots in England
Archaeologists have found remains of a chariot racing track in Colchester. 8,000 people probably watched chariot races at the track. Archaeologist, Philip Crummy thinks the track is one of the most exciting things he has found. (History, chariot racing, archaeology, the Romans, brainstorming, comprehension, true or false, reading for understanding, comparative adjectives and superlative adjectives.)Elementary

The Shape of Things to Come
A shiny white pod that has begun road tests may well be the taxi of the future. The pod, known as ULTra -- Urban Light Transport -- could make driver-free transport a reality and not just the stuff of futuristic fantasy. (Public transport, transport problems, technology, the future, summarizing, definite and indefinite articles.)Upper-Intermediate

Sleep for the Sick?
Patients who have complained they cannot get any rest in noisy hospitals have been vindicated with a report confirming that the racket on hospital wards can be as loud as a rock concert. (Hospitals, importance of sleep, noise levels, survey, ranking, predicting from the headline, completing a table, comprehension, arranging sentence parts, comparisons: as...as and not as....as, brainstorming.)Upper-Intermediate

The Great Shrinking Wall
The Great Wall of China is shrinking as tourism and development take their toll on one of the world's most famous monuments. (Famous structures, the Great Wall of China, seven wonders of the world, matching information and pictures, completing a table, constructing questions, finding evidence, summarizing, listening for specific information, infinitive of purpose, discussion.)Intermediate

Expensive Hotels
The new Mandarin Oriental hotel has a suite that costs US$12,595 a night - the most expensive hotel room in New York. (Hotels, predicting, gap fill, comprehension, multiple choice, true or false, discussion, agreement: has or have, numbers - dollars and cents.)Elementary

The Mummy's Curse
King Tutankhamen's infamous "curse of the mummy's tomb," supposed to have killed off many of those involved in the opening of the pharaoh's tomb 80 years ago was a myth, Australian researchers say. (Ancient Egypt, curses, mummies, archeology, brainstorming, matching sentence halves, scanning, comprehension, true, false or not given, complete the statements, past participles, writing an e-mail, role play.)Upper-Intermediate

Mirrors Not Required
Wall-to-wall mirrors in gyms and dance studios might stop women getting the exercise they need because women who work out in front of a mirror get discouraged and feel tired, Canadian researchers said. (Exercise and body image, Find Someone Who game, categorizing words, writing questions, crossword, completing sentences, true, false or not given, role play, discussion, group design project, superlative adjectives.)Upper-Intermediate

Chimney Sweep?
It may work for Santa Claus but two people found that going down a chimney may not be such a good idea unless you want to get stuck. (Bizarre stories, rescues, matching pictures and information, predicting, gap fill, reading for detail, comprehension, try + infinitive + to, role play, pair crossword.) Pre-Intermediate

Lost Palace
Workers building a new town hall in Nicosia, Cyprus found the remains of an 800-year-old Lusigan palace whose whereabouts has been a mystery for centuries. (Medieval buildings and archaeological discoveries, Cyprus, reading for detail, discussion, time expressions with 'for', word find.)Elementary

Home Sweet Home
Max takes a look at words to do with houses and homes.Intermediate

Stuck!
A man squeezed into a garbage chute in an apartment building to retrieve a favorite old sweater thrown away by his wife, but got stuck between floors... (Rescue story, apartment buildings, garbage chutes, crossword puzzle.)
Pre-Intermediate

What You Read is What You Get
A London real estate agency believes in telling it like it is in its advertisements, for example: "Almost certainly the scruffiest two-bedroom flat we've seen for a long time." (Real estate ads, honesty in descriptions, euphemisms, writing descriptions of houses, adjectives, adjective order, describing things in positive and negative ways.)Upper-Intermediate

A State of Emergency
Italy has declared a state of environmental emergency in Venice, one of its most popular tourist destinations. "Extraordinary measures are needed because of the high levels of pollution," said Federica Cingolani, the environment ministry press secretary. "The states of emergency could last a year but it will be up to local officials to decide." (Pollution, Italy, tourism, collocations Writing / Peer Editing.)Upper-Intermediate to Advanced